News

UNI Global Union is backing strike action by several hundred foreign exchange students who, when they arrived in the United States, were sent to work at a Pennsylvania packing plant operated by Exel, a Deutsche Post DHL company, for Hershey, the chocolate giant. The students walked out last week, protesting against low pay, physically exhausting work and large withholdings from their pay for rent and other costs. For most of them, the net pay isn’t even enough to cover the cost of their visas, which ranged from $3000 to $6000.

UNI says the students’ treatment is outrageous and exploitative. UNI has written to the students as a mark of solidarity and is calling on its affiliates to give a donation to the students’ campaign fund being promoted by the Service Employees International Union.



The group of over 300 students, from universities in China, Turkey and Eastern Europe, are part of a so-called “summer cultural exchange programme”, promising a chance to see the US and live the dream. However, the student workers found themselves living a virtual nightmare about as far away from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as it’s possible to get.



“Unfortunately, some US employers use the student exchange visa program as a cynical excuse to employ foreign workers at the lowest possible wage, without payroll taxes, and without the practical ability to unionise or exercise rights under US employment law. But employing these young people in a packing facility stretches anyone’s definition of a summer student experience. We would expect better from DHL” says Christy Hoffman, UNI Deputy General Secretary.



Investigations have been launched by the Department of State, the US Labor Department and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Exel is one of four companies with a role in the packing plant where the students are employed. UNI has written Deutsche Post DHL pointing out that its company Exel as the contractor running the day to day operations for the plant must bear its share of responsibility for this unacceptable situation and failing to ensure it lives up to the standards of its own Code of Conduct and the UN Global Compact.



Neil Anderson, Head of UNI Post & Logistics says, “The case is further evidence of the need for Deutsche Post DHL to come to the table and negotiate a Global Framework Agreement that will guarantee DHL employees worldwide the fundamental rights of decent work and freedom of association.” UNI, along with the International Transport Workers’ Federation, call on Deutshe Post DHL to sign up to the agreement to demonstrate respect for all their workers.